A Whole Bunch of Museums



It's been a while. I do apologize. It's not that we've been too busy for you (though we have). It's not that nothing has happened (much has). It's just that I'm writing phonics at an inhuman clip, and by the end of the day I want nothing more to do with the keyboard. Plus Phil has to write his lectures on our one computer. But I will catch up, I will!

The workmen continue apace -- their own pace. They are apparently putting up balconies on the front of the building, which means we're entirely swathed in scaffolding. They work furiously and loudly for 15 minutes, and then silence. When we look out the window, we can see that it's time for one of the dozen or so tea and cig breaks.





We've visited a lot of museums in the last 12 days. A LOT. One

day while I worked, Phil went to the British Museum, which is a ten-minute walk from our flat, and free. He focused on the Mesopotamia rooms, which were three of the many hundreds of galleries the museum boasts. So when Phil and I went back this week, I started there, and he went on to Egypt to view the mummies and the many Japanese tourists taking selfies of themselves with the mummies. I've never paid much mind to Mesopotamia, though it's in the news constantly. Turns out there's quite a bit that went on there lo these thousands of years ago, including the development of a Babylonian library inscribed in stone that just happens to contain ALL THE KNOWLEDGE.

We also visited the local Museum of the Order of St. John. The Order began in Jerusalem

during the Crusades as a group of healers, but quickly found itself competing with the Templars. So they got a bit warlike and fought until they were evicted from Jerusalem. They went to Acre, then to Cyprus, and then Rhodes, and finally Malta, which thrilled us for reasons that will become clear at a later date. They remained focused on the healing arts (with a side of war), opening hospitals here and there and establishing the city of Valletta. They moved through Europe, building hospitals and other structures, and put up a priory in England in the sixteenth century, which is now our little

museum. They were in evidence during World War I, which thrilled Phil (there's a small exhibit, of course, to commemorate the centennial) and in World War II. And they still exist, responding to emergencies with their ambulance corps. There was an original Caravaggio hanging on one wall inside, and we were startled to learn that he was a member of the Order in the early 16th century -- but not so startled to learn that he became a member when he'd fled to Malta after murdering someone, and then was kicked out of the Order for excessive fighting.

Because we plan to host three formal(ish) teas for the students, we thought we should buy some real tea. We went to the original Twinings tea shop, which is also a small museum. It was established in 1704. There we had a tea tasting, set up just like a wine tasting. The teas we tried were unlike anything I'd ever tasted before. Even their "special" Earl Grey was blended with jasmine and so had a completely new flavour. We bought three kinds of loose tea, unaware that they were entirely the wrong kinds to serve to young novices of the tea service. But more on that later...

We walked to St. Paul's -- a cathedral, of course, not technically a museum -- which is very close to us. It costs a ridiculous amount to enter, though, so we're saving it for later, with visitors. In fact, if we can get ten together at once, we get a discount rate.

Our final museum for this stretch was the Dickens House, for which Klauser joined us. This was CD's home in the mid-1830s during his first stint of wealthiness following The Pickwick Papers. It was where Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist were produced, and three of his ten children were born. The house was done up very evocatively after a huge overhaul.

We found the Surround Sound a bit taxing (I kind of liked the clip-clop-of-horses-outside-the-windows effect, but the dinner-table-chat effect was too
much). But seeing the great man's own desk and chair, the art that hung in his house, the letters 

a grille from the Marshalsea
debtors' prison, where Dickens' father
(and Little Dorrit's) was incarcerated

written with his hand, was really moving. We realized, too, after reading a description of how much Dickens liked to dress in fashion, especially where "colorful waistcoats" were concerned, where Klauser finds his own sartorial inspiration. While Phil and I are wondering if we should turn to jeggings and snug tops to keep up with the fashionable London set (answer: probably not), Klauser has reverted splendidly to the early Victorian era.




Our pubs for the week, all within five minutes of one another:



The Bleeding Heart, famous for offering to make patrons
"drunk for a penny, dead drunk for two pennies"

The One Tun, a Dickens haunt where Bill Sykes goes to get drunk in Oliver Twist

The Old Mitre -- a pub hidden at the end of an obscure alleyway,
built in 1546 and held up by a cherry tree that
Queen Elizabeth danced around with Sir Christopher Hatton

Pear cider and beer in the Old Mitre